Tagged: cast on

Lately when I knit the first row after casting on, I’ve been getting a long stretch of yarn in between my two needles. It gets progressively longer and longer as I knit more stitches. I have been pulling the stitch just tight enough so the cast on edge is even and the stitches are evenly spaced but aren’t tight on the needle. Do you know what is happening? Does anyone have any suggestions on how I can fix this? Here are a few pictures of what’s going on.

Well, classes have started up and I have a lot of reading to do. I decided to take Microbiology, Greek Mythology, and Great Philosophers which are all very reading intensive (I’ll have 150-300 pages to read every week). I’m really excited for these classes but I have to get used to the reading since I’m finally not taking all intro classes. Because of this, I probably won’t be posting every day, but I’ll do my best to get at least 2-3 posts out a week.

Anyways, back to knitting ( this is a knitting blog after all). Today I finished up the penguin’s feet! First I knit 4 triangles and then sewed two together for each foot.

Then, using a blanket stitch, I made toes! The pattern called for a blanket stitch but I think a normal whipstitch would be easier.

Finally, I whipstitched the feet to the bottom of the penguin. One is a little closer to the center than I intended but it works.

I’m done with all of the knitting! All I have to do is fill him up with stuffing. I’m planning a Michaels run this weekend to get some.

All in all, I quite enjoyed this pattern. It’s pretty quick and not too difficult if you can do basic increases and decreases (knit2tog and ssk). Even if you aren’t too confident on these techniques, google is a great place to learn. KnittingHelp.com is a pretty good resource (I think they actually have an iPhone app) as is youtube.

So I got back to St Louis today for the start of spring semester. After a vacation in lovely Savannah, GA where the high today was 78, I’m listening to it rain as the temp drops to 28 and the roads freeze. Good thing I don’t have to drive anywhere and I have knitting to keep me busy!

So after my sweater post yesterday, I decided that I was going to take a break for a fun project. I found this adorable penguin pattern at knitty.com which is another great website that I’d highly recommend to you fellow knitters. It’s an online knitting magazine with frequent technique articles and free patterns (which as I’m sure you all understand are pretty much the best thing ever- after free yarn I guess but that doesn’t really exist…).
Here’s what the penguin should look like when I’m done.

Today since I’m just starting this project, I thought I’d talk a little about casting on. I learned casting on from my grandma and this style is the only one I know. I did try to learn a provisional cast on for the beard in the beard hat but it was a disaster so I gave up. I generally “cast on” the first stitch by making a slip knot. Here’s how I do the rest

First, I hold the yarn loosly in my left hand so it goes over my index finger

Then, I slip my thumb under and pull it back until I make kind of a deformed triangle shape with the yarn around my hand

Then I bring the needle under the bottom piece of yarn making sure the point gos through the middle

Finally, I pull the loop of yarn off of my fingers and tighten it around the needle and pull it tight

Well, that’s how I learned to cast on. I just ordered The Principles of Knitting so I’m hoping to expand my repertoire. How do you guys cast on? Do you know more than one technique? And where did you learn it?

Happy Knitting!

1/24/13 edit: Hey everyone! The penguin is now completed! Check out the rest of the process from casting on to completion by going to the home page of my blog.